Huma Temple (Leaning Temple of Huma)

The Leaning Temple of Huma, on the bank of the Mahanadi river a short distance south of Sambalpur, is one of only a small number of deliberately or accidentally tilted temple structures known anywhere in the world, and the best-known example in Odisha. Dedicated to Shiva as Bimaleshwar, the temple’s original construction is credited to the Ganga-dynasty ruler Anangabhima Deva III, with a substantial rebuilding under the Chauhan king Baliar Singh in the late 17th century and further temples added to the complex under King Ajit Singh in the late 18th century – giving the site a documented, multi-phase construction history spanning several centuries of Kalinga architectural tradition even before accounting for its unusual lean.

That lean – measured at 13.8 degrees, with the temple’s pinnacle remaining perpendicular to the ground even as its body tilts – has no settled explanation in the sources consulted: proposed causes range from uneven underlying rock to river-current erosion of the foundation to displacement from a past earthquake, and it is not established whether the tilt was ever intentional. The tilt itself has reportedly held steady for the past four to five decades, and the temple continues in active worship today, with its largest annual gathering at a Shivaratri mela each March that draws visitors from well beyond Odisha; local folklore additionally holds a species of fish in the adjoining Mahanadi, known as Kudo, to be under the temple deity’s protection.